# Coolify review (2026): is the free plan enough? > Open-source platform to deploy apps and databases to your own servers Checked Nov 13, 2026 ยท graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA. Coolify is an open-source, self-hostable platform for deploying websites, applications, databases and one-click services to servers you connect over SSH, positioned as an alternative to Vercel, Heroku, Netlify and Railway. It is free to run on your own server, and a managed Cloud edition runs the dashboard for a monthly fee while you bring the servers. - **Category:** Web Hosting - **Made by:** Coolify - **Website:** https://coolify.io - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Skip it if you do not have a server, as neither edition supplies one. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 13, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 13, 2026, Coolify has a free plan, and paid plans start at $5 per month for up to 2 connected servers (Cloud), or free to self-host. - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **Free plan:** The self-hosted edition is free forever with every feature and no restrictions; you run it on your own infrastructure. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Self-hosted | $0 | Install Coolify yourself on your own infrastructure with all features and unlimited servers and teams. Support comes from the community, and you handle updates and backups. | | Cloud | $5 per month for up to 2 servers, then $3 per extra server | Coolify hosts the dashboard at app.coolify.io; you bring your own servers. Unlimited deployments, email alerts, and limited email support. | Read from https://coolify.io/pricing on Nov 13, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Coolify before buying. ## Ways to pay less - **20% off Cloud with annual billing** (Annual discount): The pricing page's billing toggle marks annual billing as 20% cheaper than monthly for Coolify Cloud. Source: https://coolify.io/pricing ## Key features - **Deploy from Git:** Integrations with GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket and Gitea give push-to-deploy and separate deployments for pull requests. - **Flexible builds:** Applications can be built with Nixpacks, Railpack, a Dockerfile or Docker Compose, served as static sites, or run from a prebuilt Docker image. - **One-click databases and services:** PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, Redis, KeyDB, Dragonfly and ClickHouse start in seconds, alongside a catalog of 360+ one-click services. - **Any server over SSH:** Resources can be deployed to your own server, a VPS, a Raspberry Pi or providers such as Hetzner and DigitalOcean, across one or many servers. - **SSL, backups and monitoring:** Let's Encrypt certificates renew automatically, databases back up to S3-compatible storage, and servers and deployments are monitored with notifications. - **API and MCP server:** An API automates deployments and resources, and an MCP server lets AI clients list resources, deploy and read logs with the same API tokens. ## Good for - Developers who want a Heroku or Vercel style workflow on their own servers - Teams that want to run databases and many small apps on cheap VPS hardware - Self-hosters who like open-source tooling ## Worth knowing - Coolify does not supply servers: both editions need servers you bring, and Cloud charges $3 a month for each server beyond the first two. - Self-hosting means you handle installation, updates and backups, with community support. - Cloud support is described as community plus limited email support. - Some pricing FAQ answers, including trial and discount questions, were not readable on the page, so no trial is recorded. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.4 out of 4**, graded Nov 13, 2026. Coolify deploys apps from Git to servers you bring, free if you self-host and $5 a month on its Cloud. It supplies no servers, and self-hosting means you install, update and back it up yourself. - **Value for money: C.** Free software, but only free if you host it yourself on a server you pay for. Cloud is $5 a month for 2 servers, then $3 each. - **Free plan and trial: B.** The self-hosted edition has every feature with no restrictions, once you have a server. Cloud has no trial on record. - **Features: B.** Git deploys, builds, one-click databases and services, SSL, backups, monitoring, an API and an MCP server. The listing shows no gap in the core job. - **Ease of use: D.** Needs servers reached over SSH and self-hosting, with community support. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** A web dashboard with an API, an MCP server and several integrations. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Coolify's own pages on 13 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among web hosts - Coolify's GPA of 2.4 is higher than 99 of the 122 other web hosts we grade, and level with 14. - It stands best on free plan and trial (B, above 99 of 122) and worst on ease of use (D, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $5 a month, against a middle price of $9.69 for the category: 31 of the 107 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 1 tool scores higher and costs less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/web-hosting ## Keep it, or make your own? **Your call.** Coolify sits between: not beyond making, and not a weekend's work either. What you would give up is listed below. Whether that is worth the price is your call. It costs $60 a year. Coolify is open source, so there is a third way: take its code and run it yourself. - You could make: It runs in a browser, which is where something home-made would run too. - You could not: Databases with views, filters and links between them. - You could not: It plugs into other products, GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket among them, and has an API. - You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Gitea, Cloudflare, Docker **Tags:** Open source, Self-hostable, Public API, Databases ## Alternatives - [Dokploy](https://toolgpa.com/tools/dokploy): Open-source platform to deploy apps and databases on your own servers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/coolify-vs-dokploy) - [CapRover](https://toolgpa.com/tools/caprover): Free, self-hosted platform for deploying apps with Docker. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/caprover-vs-coolify) - [Dokku](https://toolgpa.com/tools/dokku): Open-source, single-server platform as a service you run yourself. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/coolify-vs-dokku) - [Render](https://toolgpa.com/tools/render): Cloud hosting for web services, databases and workers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/coolify-vs-render) - [Railway](https://toolgpa.com/tools/railway): App and database hosting billed by the second for usage. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/coolify-vs-railway) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 13, 2026: - https://coolify.io - https://coolify.io/pricing - https://coolify.io/docs/ Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/coolify Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).